Executives from Orange flew to Silicon Valley in California for a meeting at Google's headquarters, or 'Googleplex', to hold preliminary discussions about a joint deal. The companies believe that they have an affinity as brands that are perceived as both 'positive' and 'innovative'.

Now, Google's CEO, Eric Schmidt recently said publicly that cell phones should be free. So maybe, just maybe, they are pushing towards that.

Their plans centre on a branded Google phone, which would probably also carry Orange's logo... But it would have built-in Google software which would dramatically improve on the slow and cumbersome experience of surfing the web from a mobile handset.

Phone calls monetized by Google AdWords? I doubt that. But I see no reason why the web experience can't be monetized with Google AdWords...